Nightfall

Chapter 15: Unexpected Visitors

We meandered back to Eden through the dense forest. Like usual there wasn't much to see other than the vine covered trees and the occasional animal, but as we neared the city we chanced upon a small clearing that we didn't see on our way out. Since it was the middle of the day and we were hungry we decided to take a lunch break to eat the remainder of our food.

"Well, that was an experience." Anya said between bites of an energy bar.

"Yeah it was" I balled my fist in front of me, "I feel a ton stronger. Thanks for all that help getting ahold of my aura, I think that made the most difference."

"Yeah, no problem. That combat training helped a ton, so I'd say were even."

I grinned, the last couple of days training had been eventful, but it had all gone without a hitch. I figured out how to overcome the influence of the dagger, but at the same time learned that it made me incredibly strong when I allowed it to influence my aura. Still, I was cautious about using it because as Anya aptly described, it looked like it was forming a demonic shell over me.

However, I wasn't the only one with a new skill; on the last day we had accidentally found out why Anya's daggers seemed so mystical. We were in the middle of an all-out knife fight when she tried to electrify her daggers and ended up shooting a full-fledged lightning bolt into the crater wall, crumbling it. Shocked, both literally and figuratively we played around with them some more and ended up coming to the conclusion that they amplified aura. This gave Anya incredible magical capabilities when she used her wind or lightning power through the blades.

"Well it looks like we'll have a couple months when we get back before the school opens its doors." I opened a bag of chips and shoved a handful in my mouth, "I wanna to do a few jobs with you but other than that I don't have any plans or anything. Do you have any ideas?"

"Well yeah, actually I was thinking we could hike there. It's really far, so it would probably be a two or three week journey if we walked."

"Geez, that's a long walk." I looked at her skeptically, "Are you sure you want to be stuck with me for such an extended period of time?"

"With you?" she laughed, "I'm not going with you 'cause I want to, you're just a necessary evil. I just want to go on an adventure, I've been caged up for so long it kind of makes me want to get out and see the world."

"Thanks for going easy on me..." I mumbled

"Hey come on, I was totally kidding!" She laughed, "Well, kinda..."

I eyed her for a second and did my best to seem hurt by her words, but soon broke out in a smile and forgave her.

"Well, you ready to head out?" I asked.

She nodded and put her wrappers back into her backpack as she stood. Her dirty training clothes were caked in dust after the week of training, but somehow she still managed to look stunning. In the perfect filtered light raining down from the trees above I found myself having to wrench my gaze away from her. I didn't want to be caught again; she was every bit as scary as Ruby when she was mad. The only real difference between them was that she couldn't summon fire tornados at will; instead she could cook me with electricity.

As we adjusted our straps and stretched out Anya broke the silence with a soft, delicate tone, "Hey I just wanted to say thanks for everything."

"What do you mean? You already thanked me, no need to do it twice. There's no need to impress, we are friends after all." The solemnness in the statement caught me off guard, but I retaliated with a beaming smile.

"Well you know, I just lost Rachel..." her eyes fell for a second, "But you've helped me look forward to the future, it's made a huge difference. So thanks."